Talking With the Spirits: More Than a Social Reality?

THE PARANORMAL REVIEW TALKING WITH THE SPIRITS: MORE THAN A SOCIAL REALITY? JACK HUNTER _____________________________________________________________________ The social reality of spirits When I started my dissertation fieldwork at the Bristol Spirit Lodge, in January 2009, I was working from a sociological perspective: I was there to study the social reality of the belief in spirits, and not the spirits themselves (Hunter, 2009). The social reality perspective has been a useful tool in the social sciences, particularly when researchers are investigating the so-called paranormal; it allows for examination of the way in which beliefs influence modes of living in (and understanding) the world, without necessarily approaching the issue of the validity of these beliefs. To a sociologist, then, it does not matter whether or not spirits actually exist, what is important is that people believe that they exist (Gilbert, 2010, p. 10; Klass, 2003, p. 54). This is a fair position, up to a point. It provides a comfortable approach; one that will not be too controversial in the highly rational world of Western academia. However, a time arrives when it becomes clear that this perspective is limiting to the scope of an ethnographic inquiry, and hence causing detriment to the overall conclusions made about the beliefs and practices of a group of people. While this approach appears to present a means to address the issue of supernatural belief in an objective and un-biased fashion, it continues to miss the point. To those who believe, the objects of their belief are not conceived of as “social facts”, but as “facts of nature”. Consequently any conclusions that are drawn from the social reality perspective are immediately distanced from the actual understanding of the group under study. This must surely be a problem: if the conclusions drawn about a group fail to match up with the ethnographic evidence, then what has actually been achieved? I feel that I reached this point with my research at the Bristol Spirit Lodge. The difficulties lay in the fact that the beliefs of those I was studying were not simply isolated ideas without any connection to the objective world; rather their beliefs were grounded in everyday experience. Sitters at the Lodge were able to talk directly, via trance mediumship, with the objects of their beliefs, and so was I. As a consequence, the spirits became a component of my everyday life, in an objective sense. I, like those I was studying, was talking with the spirits on a regular basis. Was I participating merely in a social reality, or something more? The reality of spirits The issue, therefore, was that the objects of the beliefs of Lodge members (spirits) were not insubstantial abstract notions, but were in fact fully communicable aspects of this reality: as real as any other conscious mind incorporated in a physical body. In other words, the spirits were as real as you or I and certainly not invisible (at least not while communicating through the entranced medium). Trance and physical mediumship can be seen as techniques by which spirits, which are otherwise abstract suppositions, become objectified, or embodied. The medium’s body serves as a vessel in three-dimensional space which may be temporarily occupied by discarnate entities (Crabtree, 1988, p. 105; Klimo, 1987, p. 2). Traditions in which some form of mediumship, channelling or spirit possession takes centre stage have the concomitant effect of providing individuals with first-hand contact with what Rudolph Otto termed “the numinous” (1958, pp. 5-7). Consequently belief in a supernatural order is reinforced by direct contact with it for followers of that tradition. Within such traditions it is understood that spirits exist because personal experiential evidence of their existence is provided during the performances of spirit mediums. James McClenon (1993, p. 117), in a discussion of shamanic healing, writes: Because practitioners perform wondrous events, observers subconsciously accept (or increase their faith in) a particular… ideology I would suggest that a similar process is in action during trance and physical mediumship demonstrations like those conducted at the Bristol Spirit Lodge. Mediumship itself, as well as the variety of ostensibly paranormal phenomena associated with the practice, serves THE PARANORMAL REVIEW as an experiential proof to the sitters of the existence of spirits. What are spirits? The issue now arises, therefore, of trying to come to some idea of what spirits actually are, and this is not an easy task. Over the years countless explanations have been offered from a variety of different theoretical perspectives: from the esoteric to the psychological and anthropological; from perspectives that accept the reality of spirits to those that negate their existence entirely. One of the most common explanatory frameworks of recent years, at least for the type of spirit that communicates via trance mediumship, is multiple personality disorder (MPD), now often referred to as dissociative identity disorder (DID). Crabtree (1988, p. 60) describes this psychological disorder as: … a condition in which two or more personalities manifest themselves in one human being. These personalities, referred to as alters, are understood to be the product of psychological mechanisms protecting the individual from traumatic life experiences. These alters can eventually assume control over the life of the individual, thereby engendering a serious pathological condition. Ethnographic data, however, do not support the idea that mediumship and spirit possession trance states are pathological in nature. Morton Klass (2001) has noted that in societies where such practices are commonplace they are seen as quite the opposite of pathological: they are seen as “normal” or even desirable attributes (2001, p. 110). Another possibility is offered by the psychoanalyst Carl Jung. In a 1948 article entitled Psychology and Spiritualism (2008, p. 165), Jung wrote that spirits: …are shadowy personifications of unconscious contents, conforming to the rule that activated portions of the unconscious assume the character of personalities when they are perceived by the conscious mind. To Jung, therefore, spirits were aspects of the unconscious mind, brought forward and personified. In Jung’s view, however, this did not detract from the independent existence of the spirits as autonomous beings, nor did it dismiss the apparently paranormal abilities of these spirits to communicate accurate information, Jung’s view of the unconscious mind was far more expansive than we might expect, he claimed, for instance that “a psychological truth is… just as good and respectable a thing as a physical truth, which limits itself to matter as the former does to psyche" because “no one knows what "psyche" is, and one knows just as little how far into nature "psyche" extends” (Jung, 2008, p.157). Social-functional interpretations from the anthropological literature have tended to look at spirits as nothing more than mechanisms for the attainment of social goals. A major exposition of this perspective can be found in I. M. Lewis’s book Ecstatic Religion (1971). In this book Lewis suggests that spirit possession provides the possessed with the opportunity to protest against social norms in a manner that frees the possessed of responsibility for their actions while in the trance state. Such interpretations, however, fail to take into account the experiences of the possessed, and fundamentally ignore the possibility that the spirit communicators could have any reality that is not the product of delusion or fraud. E d i t h Tu r n e r, b y c o n t r a s t , i s a n anthropologist who has opted for a somewhat different standpoint. Following an apparent spirit experience during an ihamba healing ceremony amongst the Ndembu in Zambia, Turner’s interpretation of both ritual and spirit belief was thoroughly transformed (Turner, 1993; 1998). She realised that for decades anthropologists have been ignoring the claims of their informants to the existence of spirits. She writes (1993, p.11): Again and again anthropologists witness spirit rituals, and again and again some indigenous exegete tries to explain that spirits are present… and the anthropologist proceeds to interpret them differently. Turner’s solution to this problem is to cast aside the strictures of “positivists’ denial” and ultimately learn to “see what the Natives see” (ibid.). This approach goes beyond anthropology’s traditional position with regard to passing comment on the ontology of the objects of supernatural belief (Hunter, 2010) An anthropology of the spirit-world Fiona Bowie, an anthropologist at the University of Bristol, has recently established the Afterlife Research Centre (ARC) as a means to promote and disseminate ethnographic approaches to the study of the afterlife and related phenomena. Bowie has proposed a methodology, which she terms “cognitive empathetic engagement” (Bowie, 2010), by THE PARANORMAL REVIEW which an ethnographic exploration of the afterlife can be achieved. This process involves adopting a frame of mind in which reports of afterlife communication are treated “as if” they were ethnographic documents describing life on the “other side”. A similar approach could well be utilised in the study of communications from spirits received via trance mediumship and possession. Bubandt (2009), for example, has argued that spirits can be treated as informants as a means to understand the society in which the possession takes place. Bubandt treats spirits as “methodologically real” rather than “ontologically real” (2009, p. 298), as Edith Turner (1993) has suggested. I attempted this, to an extent, with a spirit called Charlie at the Bristol Spirit Lodge. But, rather than using him as an informant to examine the social makeup of the Lodge, I asked him questions about the spirit world and what exactly he was. His answers offered intriguing food for thought. Perhaps most revealing was his assertion that he was not the product of a single source, but was rather a collective manifestation: …there are three sides involved; [the spirit], the conscious host and the subconscious host. (Di Nucci & Hunter, 2009, p. 18) When in the trance state, Charlie explained, all three components must be “in a state of common trust”. Without this blending Charlie would have been unable to manifest. Similarly séance phenomena were explained as being the product of multiple influential factors including the consciousnesses/energies of the medium, the spirits and the sitters. From this perspective we come to understand a little more fully the nature of the spirits: they depend upon us to make themselves known. They are a sort of collectively created thought-form, while maintaining an element of independent individuality, assisted into being by the focused creative concentration of a group of sitters. This idea is further reinforced when we look at the actual practices of Lodge. The séances themselves are highly ritualised activities, following a regular pattern. The séances are always conducted in the same building; a purpose-built 12’x10’ shed. Entering into this building indicates a moving out of the world of the profane into a sacred (or at least special), liminal, space. At the start of the proceedings a prayer is read to invoke the protection of the “Almighty Father” and the presence of spirits. This serves as a cue to suggest that spirits will be present, thus inducing expectancy in the minds of the sitters. The effect of dimmed lighting and music in the induction of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) has been widely noted (Peters & Price-Williams, 1980, 399; Noll, 1985; Eliade, 1989), as has the tendency to encounter spiritual beings when experiencing ASCs (Devereux, 1997; Strassman, 2001; Luke, 2008). All of these factors, including the potential influence of external spiritual agencies, combine to allow spirit communication to take place. This is where we see the benefit of the ethnographic approach in trying to understand the manifestation of the paranormal. Inferences are drawn not only from information gathered by talking to informants (incarnate or otherwise), but also from observing behaviours and practices. From this perspective we can potentially understand more fully both the purpose of the ritualised séance procedure and the nature of the spirits it assists in conjuring. Conclusions There is, seemingly, considerable reason to treat spirits as though they were ontologically real if not as ontologically real. Indeed, to my mind, this is our primary route towards ascertaining their ontological status: through conversation. We can gain, from this perspective, sociological i n s i g h t s a s w e l l a s , p o t e n t i a l l y, parapsychological insights. We can use spirits as real informants, treating them not as “social facts” but as those who regularly interact with them do – as natural facts. Acknowledgements Thanks to Dr Nicola Holt for inviting this article and to Dr Fiona Bowie for useful comments on an early draft. References Bowie, F. (2010). Devising methods for the ethnographic study of the afterlife: Cognition, empathy and engagement. Retrieved from http:// www.afterlife research.info/publications.html on 24/4/2010. Bubandt, N. (2009). Interview with an ancestor: Spirits as informants and the politics of possession in North Maluku. 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Rochester: Park Street Press. Turner, E. (1993). The reality of spirits: A Tabooed or permitted field of study? Anthropology of Consciousness, 4, 9-12. Turner, E. (1998). Experiencing ritual. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Websites • http://www.afterliferesearch.info • http://www.paranthropology.weebly.com __________________________________________________________________________________